There are nearly 25,000 nurses from outside the EU working in the NHS in England.
Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Non-EU migrants working in the NHS should be exempt from health surcharges to help tackle the health service’s staffing crisis, nurses’ leaders are urging ministers.

Nurses from outside the European Economic Area should no longer have to pay the £200-a-year surcharge now levied on all such migrants, as well as their spouses and children, according to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

The charge, introduced in 2015, is due to rise to £400 later this year to raise more money for the NHS. The increased charges are expected to generate £220m a year.

The RCN highlighted the case of Evaline Omondi, a Kenyan nurse working in Luton, whose children had to return to her homeland because the surcharge proved too costly. She was told to pay £3,600 to ensure that she, her partner and four children could receive NHS care free at the point of use during her three-year stint working in the NHS.

“The introduction of the surcharge fee was an awful moment,” Omondi said. “The fees had to be paid immediately, so we had to take out loans to cover them, which still affect my family to this day.

“But on top of the visa charges, and childcare costs, we could not meet the cost and my children had to move back to Kenya. A family who came together is now in pieces, scattered all over the place.”

There are nearly 25,000 nurses from outside the EU working in the NHS in England, including 17,448 of Asian origin – mainly Filipino or Indian – and 6,889 from Africa. That is more than the 21,000 nurses from EU countries.

Anyone from outside the EEA coming to live in Britain for six months or more to work, study or spend time with relatives has to pay the surcharge. Ministers say it represents migrants’ “fair contribution to [financing the NHS’s] long-term sustainability”.

Janet Davies, the chief executive of the RCN, said that after the Windrush scandal “it is shameful that families are being torn apart by this policy too – uprooting children from their family, friends and school”. She also urged ministers to rule out the surcharge being extended to EU nurses after Brexit.

“I say to the government today: these people keep the NHS running,” added Davies, who will highlight the RCN’s call at its annual conference in Belfast on Sunday. “They are the very last people who should ever be sent upfront invoices for healthcare.

“The government must not put Spanish, Portuguese or Italian colleagues through the same after Brexit.”

However, Caroline Nokes, the immigration minister, left open the possibility that new EU migrants arriving in Britain after Brexit might have to pay the surcharge in a parliamentary answer earlier this month.

Defending the decision to double the surcharge in February, Nokes said: “It is only right that people who come to the UK should contribute to the running of the NHS. The surcharge offers access to healthcare services that are far more comprehensive and at a much lower cost than many other countries.”